The International Society for Vaccines is an organization that engages, supports, and sustains the professional goals of a diverse membership in all areas relevant to vaccines - 2018 ISV Annual Congress

2018 President's Letter

Dear Colleagues, although we are in the midst of the holiday summer season, the ISV has been quite busing pursing society activities that we are excited to report. Looking first ahead to the fall and the ISV Congress, which has come together under the outstanding leadership of Denise L. Doolan and Ted M. Ross working with the scientific committee, will be held in Atlanta, USA, (October 28-30, 2018). An outstanding slew of leaders in high profile vaccine topics have been carefully collected to speak for this year’s meeting. As is the goal of the society, the invited speakers come from all over the globe and represent topics of high impact for the vaccine community. A detailed list of these outstanding speakers can be found on the ISV Congress web site (https://isvcongress.org/).

In addition, the review season for submitted abstracts to the congress has completed. There has been a very high volume of abstracts submitted with a global distribution which we are all thrilled about. The scientific committee had its work in hand reviewing these exciting submissions. As a reminder, late breaker submissions of high impact studies can be submitted for consideration, so please keep this in mind and plan to send in abstracts for this important session. As is ISV policy we support young and emerging scientists (graduate students and post-doctoral trainees) to attend and participate in the meeting through multiple programs. As envisioned by our past President, Dr. Margaret Liu, up to ten $500 awards will be offered to reimburse attendance costs based upon the evaluation of the abstracts by the scientific committee and final selection by the Congress Co-chairs and the ISV President. These can include authors of late breaker abstracts. These “Presidential” abstracts will be recognized at a special session of the ISV Congress. We continue the tradition of providing an award named in honor of Dr. Maurice Hilleman to the lead author of the most outstanding submitted abstract at the ISV annual congress as well as an award named in honor of Dr. Richard Ginsberg to the lead author of the best abstract from a trainee-submitted abstract. Through our continuing partnership with Vaccine Renaissance, selected scholarships for Women and Minority Delegates are available on an application-based selective basis. The details for all awards are updated on the ISV Congress site and covered in future issues of the bimonthly ISV Newsletter. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the early bird deadline for registration for the congress is approaching (August 15, 2018) please go to the 2018 Congress website at https://isvcongress.org/ to place your registration.

ISV also believes it is important to expand our goals and impact for our members by working with and recognizing outstanding members of the vaccine community. Accordingly, several years ago the society created the special category of ISV Fellow. This honor is an acknowledgement given to persons who have made immense contributions to the field of vaccinology and who have a special commitment to ISV and to the goals of the society. A list of these important vaccine scientists appears on the ISV web page. This year we are thrilled to announce the induction of 5 new extraordinary members of this exclusive fellowship. They represent broad areas of vaccine science with high importance to the members of our society. This year’s class of inductees includes:

Dr. Rafi Ahmed (Emory University, USA) recognized for exceptional contribution to the field of T cell immunobiology including seminal contributions to our understanding of the development of the adaptive immunity as well as the maturation and exhaustion of the immune response.

Dr. Randy A. Albrecht (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA) for important contributions to the field of immunovirology and seminal contributions to the International Society for Vaccines.

Dr. Natalie Garcon (Bioaster, France), recognized among other accomplishments for her outstanding contributions to the field of vaccine adjuvants including the development of multiple licensed vaccines built around the ASO series of vaccine adjuvants which she championed.

Professor Adrian Hill (Jenner Institute, UK) recognized for exceptional accomplishments in the field of malaria vaccine development as well as major contributions to the development of prime/boost vaccine approaches for infectious disease.

Dr. Paul Offit (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA) recognized for seminal contribution to the development of rotavirus vaccines as well as being a global champion for vaccines and immunization science.

All members of ISV are encouraged to reach out to and encourage the 2018 class of inductees. There will be a special ceremony for the induction of this year’s class of exceptional fellows at the ISV Congress, as well as a unique opportunity for scholarship winners as well as trainees to meet and to interact with the new ISV Fellows. Stay tuned for additional details.